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Future Stock
| image = | image_size = | episode = 53 | prod_code = 3ACV21 | season = 4 | airdate = March 31, 2002 | runtime = 30 minutes | director = Brian Sheesley | guests = Tom Kenny as the announcer | writer = Aaron Ehasz | storyboards = | subtitle = Love it or shove it | cartoon = | preceded_by = "Godfellas" | followed_by = "The 30% Iron Chef" }} is the fifty-third episode of Futurama and the twenty-first of the third production season and the ninth of the fourth broadcast season. It aired March 31, 2002 on FOX. Synopsis A frozen Wall Street investor from the 1980s, known as "That Guy", takes over control of Planet Express and tries to sell it to Mom. Plot Planet Express holds its stockholders' meeting, and the state of the business is not good. Uninterested in the meeting, Fry and Dr. Zoidberg wander off in search of food. Fry finds his way into a cryogenic defrostee support group meeting, where he meets a sleazy Gordon Gekko-esque 1980s businessman referred to only as "That Guy", who froze himself to await a cure for his terminal bone-itis. Fry and That Guy return to the Planet Express stockholders' meeting, where a revolt against Professor Farnsworth is in progress. Fry nominates That Guy to be the new CEO; That Guy gets one vote more than Farnsworth, and takes over Planet Express. That Guy names Fry his new Vice Chairman, and sets out to remake Planet Express by giving it an expensive image overhaul. That Guy's business strategy proves to be the acquisition of flying chairs, expensive suits, and an enigmatic television commercial, which is a reference to the 1984 Macintosh commercial. Fry is impressed, the rest of the crew is appalled, and Zoidberg is hungry; he sells his stock to That Guy for a sandwich. After draining the company's funds and its employees' morale, That Guy announces that he is selling Planet Express to Mom. The takeover, ostensibly a shareholder's meeting, begins at the orbiting Intergalactic Stock Exchange, and all the Planet Express employees vote against it. That Guy's vote tips the scales to 51% in favor; his sandwich-bought pile of shares, it is revealed, had been requisitioned to Zoidberg by Hermes in lieu of toilet paper when the shares were worthless. The shares are now worth a huge sum, and the crew contemplate the loss of their company and the gaining of incredible wealth, save for Zoidberg, who is left to contemplate the worth of his sandwich. Before the final approval of the merger takes place, That Guy's uncured bone-itis enters its final stage, causing his body to contort and bones snap, twist and curl. That Guy bemoans that he had been so busy "being an 80s guy", he had forgotten to get it treated. Fry gains control of That Guy's shares, and moves to vote against the merger. The Planet Express staff initially tries to convince him to sell the company, because the sale of their stock will make them all rich. However, the very speech that Fry gives to announce his new plans for the company drives the stock's price through the floor. Since the staff will be poor no matter what he does, he votes against the merger. Ongoing Themes Death, near-death, mutilation * The stockholders' annual report video depicts the Planet Express ship crashing. * Two gorillas pummel each other, pro-wrestling style, at the Big Ape Fight. * Calculon is hit in the head by a clown-tricycle at the Big Ape Fight. * Mom stooge-slaps her sons. * Fry falls down a flight of stairs. * That Guy suffers a fatal attack of bone-itis on live television. Hermes and Zoidberg Hermes chastises Zoidberg for not refrigerating his sandwich, calling him a "spineless lobster". Category:Season Three Category:Episodes Category:Mom Episodes Category:Fry Episodes